Greatness With God 3

Hello Everyone,

In Genesis 21:12-13 we see Abraham’s next step to greatness with God and that was Casting Away Ishmael

12 But God said to him, "Do not be so distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. 13 I will make the son of the maidservant into a nation also, because he is your offspring."
 14 Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the desert of Beersheba.

This is one of the hardest steps toward greatness with God.

Ishmael represents the flesh, dependence in self, and God demands we cast away these things so that we might follow after the promise of God.

· One of the problems for Abraham is he had become attached to Ishmael.

So many people cannot let go of the past to step into the future.  Some people get saved, but they look back to Sodom, some people give their life to God, but hold on to their Ishmael.

The reason people fall out of the bed is they stay to close to where they got in.

· In all of our lives we can settle for mediocrity. We can say things aren’t too bad staying where I am is comfortable; traveling with Lot isn’t that big of a deal, holding on to Ishmael won’t hurt me down the road.

 But the road to greatness with God is marked by places where we leave things behind.

Greater Things Are Still To Come!

Pastor Phil